Seattle - quick visit

Ray Sachs

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Not too far from Philly
Name
you should be able to figure it out...
We're having a few quick days in Seattle before starting a week long Alaska cruise this weekend. I managed to shoot a lot yesterday, a tiny bit this morning, and I'm probably done until the Alaska part of the trip. Seattle is near and dear to my heart, though, having lived here for many years, albeit many years ago. So here's a quick travelogue and a few street photos. I'll have a bunch after Alaska but probably won't get a chance to process or post them until after I'm back home the week after next...

A couple shots of the Market - they've all been done to death, but you can't not take 'em when you're here. Sort of like the cliche Brooklyn Bridge shot that everyone takes while in New York...

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Seattle-2-Edit
by Ray, on Flickr

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by Ray, on Flickr

The skyline from the waterfront...

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by Ray, on Flickr

The view from the roof deck of the place we're staying...

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by Ray, on Flickr

About the only tiny part of Pioneer Square that's not under construction at the moment - if I swung slightly to the right, all you'd see is construction...

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by Ray, on Flickr

Seattle's oldest "tower" in the foreground - I worked there in the mid-80's and it STILL has human operated elevators. And it's tallest building in the background.

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by Ray, on Flickr

The Alaskan Way viaduct, which is in the process of being tunneled under and it will be leveled, totally opening up the waterfront to downtown.

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by Ray, on Flickr

A Spanish restaurant upstairs at the market. I've been having their signature salad here since about 1983 when I lived and worked all within a few blocks of this place. Still run by the same folks with basically the same menu. Prices are a bit higher now...

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by Ray, on Flickr

And, some street shots, which I won't be able to bore you with from Alaska I don't think...

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by Ray, on Flickr

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by Ray, on Flickr

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by Ray, on Flickr

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by Ray, on Flickr

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-Ray
 
great impressions, Ray!
Guess one of these days we should really make our way up there too :)
That's kind of how we feel about Alaska. All the time we lived in the Puget Sound area and we never ventured north of about Banff. Always thought we should have gotten to Alaska so now, 23 years after we leave the area, we're finally heading up. But doing it the wimpy way, from the comfort of a cruise ship...

-Ray
 
Hi Ray.. Great shots as always.. they bring back memories for me.. I delivered telegrams for Western Union in that whole area you photographed when I was 15 on a bike.. those hills were a killer.. the shot of the Smith Tower is awesome.. have fun on your cruise and I look forward to see some breathtaking shots from Alaska..
Doug
 
Turns out we have limited wi-fi on the ship. Not fast enough to post photos, but not too bad for checking in here and elsewhere.

We were staying in a building in Seattle that was located right next to Westlake Park (the park is triangular and the other half of the block is the triangular building we were staying in and the old original Nordstroms building (Nordy's has moved across the street). So we were right there when Bernie Sanders showed up on Saturday to speak to a rally, only to have the rally shut down after a protest. I didn't get any photos of the disruption, but I got a bunch of Bernie shortly before and of the rally before it got shut down. So I'll add those some time next week when I post Alaska photos.

BTW, the first street photo posted here (guy with accordion) seems to have been picked for Explore on Flickr, but I'm guessing it was removed from Explore shortly there-after because there weren't very many comments or faves. That's been happening more often than not lately - they used to stay up. Almost as much of a mystery as how they get picked in the first place...

-Ray
 
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Back from the trip and with a good broadband connection - the things you take for granted and then miss when you don't have 'em - it's also nice to see some of these shots on my BIG monitor instead of just the laptop. I guess I'm really a tech junkie! So here are the last few Seattle shots of the Bernie Sanders rally that went pear shaped when some demonstrators took the stage and prevented Bernie from speaking. Here are a couple of the candidate which just conform for me that there's nothing on earth I'd LESS want to do than run for president!

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Seattle-Bernie 1
by Ray, on Flickr

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Seattle-Bernie 2
by Ray, on Flickr

The rally he never really spoke at in Westlake Park. This wasn't here for most of the time I lived there in the '70's and '80s - Politicos usually tried to find a place to speak down by Pike Place Market until I think '92, when I remember a photo of Clinton speaking here a month or so after we'd moved back east. But it's a really cool public space for whatever sort of informal gatherings, concerts, public events of all kinds, and yeah, political rallies too.

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by Ray, on Flickr

Here's a higher altitude shot of the park - it's really a pretty cool urban space. We were staying in the second, taller, of the two connected buildings on the left - we couldn't have avoided this rally if we'd wanted to...

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Seattle-Westlake
by Ray, on Flickr

I'll do a thread with Alaska shots over the next day or so...

-Ray
 
Very cool shots, and of a place I liked a lot when I finally visited last summer. And oh, dear god, those hills... on a Brompton with a kid on it, some of them were just stupidly steep.
I'd have to say a few of them are more or less un-ridable even with the right gear - can't keep traction on the rear wheel and the front wheel on the ground at the same time. And a Brompton with a kid on it is NOT the right gear! Although I guess the kid might help keep the front wheel on the ground???

-Ray
 
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